Graduation

Officially, this was conferred last month, but the diploma only arrived today. My course concentration was World War II, but with an elective each on command and leadership in the Civil War, and on the American Revolution. Interestingly, the latter was taught mainly from the British perspective, which was both interesting and refreshing. I did not write a thesis; I started my work right before that became mandatory, and I'd already had the fun of that when I got my first MA, in political science, from Duquesne University thirty-one years ago.

That first one took me about a year and a half. This one took four times longer, but this time I was working more than full time. Also, my Duquesne Masters degree required eight courses, all in the regular classroom at night, and a thesis, in my case The Ideological Foundations of the Salvadoran Revolution. This one required twelve courses, all of them online.

Back in the day I was torn between going for a graduate degree in political science, or one in history, and picked the former. This time around, I got the other.

You need to be a member of ConsimWorld to add comments!

I'd say that a plurality of my course work and papers ended up being on command, leadership and strategy. Where I did OoB research was in designing my games, but then wargaming and game design turned into real good preparation. Also, I had a REALLY big advantage in having already gone through a Masters program, so I knew what was involved, and some tricks and best practices to get through this one. At the same time, there was a lot of pressure to do more than just get through; as a professor I would have looked like an idiot for not excelling. So I had to go big or go home.

Congratulations, Jim! Am glad you got a lot out of the coursework on the British perspective on command and leadership. When I do my staff ride on the Yorktown Campaign and battle, that's what I focus on. Makes the students more sympathetic/empathetic towards the redcoats!